Schedule

Keynote Speaker: Eboo Patel

Named by US News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders of 2009, Eboo Patel is the Founder and President of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a Chicago-based organization building the interfaith movement on college campuses. Author of the book Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation, which won the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion, Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America, and the forthcoming book Interfaith Leadership: A Primer, Eboo is also a regular contributor to the Washington Post, USA Today, Huffington Post, NPR, and CNN. He served on President Obama’s inaugural Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship.Eboo serves on the Religious Advisory Committee of the Council on Foreign Relations, on the Board of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, on the National Committee of the Aga Khan Foundation USA, and on the Department of Homeland Security’s Faith-based Advisory Council. He has spoken at the TED Conference, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Nobel Peace Prize Forum and universities around the world. Eboo is a Young Global Leader in the World Economic Forum and an Ashoka Fellow, part of a select group of social entrepreneurs whose ideas are changing the world. He was named by Islamica Magazine as one of ten young Muslim visionaries shaping Islam in America and was chosen by Harvard’s Kennedy School Review as one of five future policy leaders to watch. Both Eboo and IFYC were honored with the Roosevelt Institute’s Freedom of Worship Medal in 2009 and Eboo was recently awarded the Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize, an award given to an individual to enhance awareness of the crucial role of religious dialogue in the pursuit of peace.Today, Eboo lives in Chicago with his wife, Shehnaz Mansuri, and their two sons.

Plenary Speaker: Bryan N. Massingale, S.T.D.

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Bryan Massingale is a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. He completed his formal education in Rome at the pontifical institute for moral theology, earning the degree, Doctor of Moral Theology, "summa cum laude.He is Professor of Theology at Marquette University. He is also a professor in the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana. His research focuses on stigmatized populations and the effects of religious faith as both a cause of social injustice and as a resource for social transformation. He is a former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and the immediate Past Convener of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium.Fr. Massingale has authored more than eighty articles, book chapters, and book reviews. His monograph entitled, Racial Justice and the Catholic Church, published by Orbis Books (2010) received a First Place Book Award from the Catholic Press Association of the U.S. and Canada. Dr. Massingale is the recipient of two honorary doctorates, and most recently held the Bernard J. Hanley Chair at Santa Clara University. He is also the recipient of Marquette University’s highest award for teaching excellence (2009).He has served as a consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, providing theological assistance on issues such as criminal justice, capital punishment, environmental justice, and affirmative action. He has also been a theological consultant for the National Black Catholic Congress, Catholic Charities USA, the Catholic Health Association and the National Catholic AIDS Network.

Plenary Speaker: Bridget Turner Kelly, Ph.D.

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In 2009, Dr. Bridget Turner Kelly joined the Higher Education masters and doctoral programs as an Associate Professor at Loyola University Chicago (LUC). She served as the Program Director of Higher Education for three years. Prior to coming to LUC, Dr. Kelly was faculty in the Student Development Administration Program as Seattle University. Dr. Kelly began her career as an Assistant Professor in The University of Vermont’s Higher Education Student Affairs graduate preparation program.For over a decade, her teaching has introduced master and doctoral students to theoretical concepts, language, and educational practices that informed their thinking and understanding of students and faculty. Dr Kelly’s primary teaching responsibilities are Multiculturalism for Social Justice in Higher Education, Women in Higher Education, and Student Development in Higher Education.Dr. Kelly’s scholarship is focused on the experiences of marginalized populations in the academy, namely White females and female faculty of color at research universities, and students of color. She also focuses on preparing multicultural competent student development professionals. She was recognized as A Diamond Honoree in 2013 and an Emerging Scholar by the American College Personal Association in 2005. She was honored with the Outstanding Contribution to Student Affairs through Teaching award from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, IV East Region in 2011. She also received the Peggy R. Williams Emerging Professional award in 2004, given by a division of the American Council on Education Office on Women in Higher Education programs.

Plenary Speaker: OiYan Poon, Ph.D.

Dr. OiYan Poon is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education at Loyola University Chicago. Her research interests include racial inequalities in college access, affirmative action, and Asian Americans in education. A nationally recognized scholar on college access policies and Asian Americans in education, she has been cited in numerous media outlets and served as a keynote speaker at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE) in 2013. Her research has been cited in amicus briefs in the Fisher vs. University of Texas U.S. Supreme Court case on affirmative action in college admissions. In 2014, the American College Personnel Association recognized Dr. Poon with a prestigious Emerging Scholar award.

A second generation Asian American daughter of immigrants, Dr. Poon has always been passionate about combating inequalities in education through community empowerment for social justice. She has been involved in research, institutional development, community organizing and advocacy for racial equity in education for more than two decades. Dr. Poon was a key advocate for the establishment of the federal Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI) minority serving institution designation. Currently, she serves as an elected officer of the Research on the Education of Asian and Pacific Americans (REAPA) Special Interest Group in AERA, a founding research fellow of the Asian American & Pacific Islander Research Coaltion (ARC), and a research advisory committee member of the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE). Since August 2010, she has served as a resarch mentor and partner to VAYLA New Orleans, a multi-racial youth empowerment organization. Their youth participatory action research partnership has been supported by the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, the Southeast Asian Research and Action Center, the UCLA Institute for American Cultures, and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center.

Dr. Poon earned her bachelor's degree from Boston College, M.Ed. in College Student Affairs Administration from The University of Georgia, and a Ph.D. in Education with a specialization in Race & Ethnic Studies in Education and a graduate certificate in Asian American Studies from UCLA. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked for several years in multicultural student affairs at George Mason University and UC Davis, where she also served as a comprehensive review reader for undergraduate admissions.